Errors and “adverse events” impose real costs in all sectors: public and private, within households and communities. However, errors and mistakes that take place in the course of healthcare can have a particularly significant impact on the lives of those affected. Aside from the human impact, harm is also costly for the NHS, and often the wider public sector. Frontier Economics has been asked by the Department of Health to provide a rapid review of evidence about the financial benefits of safer care.

This report, commissioned by the Department of Health, investigates the costs of unsafe care in the NHS. A rapid review of existing evidence suggests that the costs of preventable, adverse events is likely to be more than £1 billion per year, but could be up to £2.5 billion annually.